Statistics office begins data collection of 22 provinces

Business

THE National Statistical Office (NSO) has started work on including the 22 provinces in the collection of data for the country’s quarterly consumer price index information.
National Statistician Roko Koloma said the country had been collecting data, especially in price collection, from only eight provinces to put together information for institutions such as the Bank of Papua New Guinea and Department of National Planning and Monitoring.
“The consumer price index measures changes in the price level of a basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households,” he said.
“It is a statistical estimate constructed using prices of a sample of representative items whose prices are collected periodically.”
There are 22 officers undergoing a week’s training at Lealea village in Central.
“The workshop is to train our trainees from the provincial centres to collect data on prices,” Koloma said,
“At the National Statistical Office, it is very important to collect this data in terms of collecting and analysing our consumer price index.
“That is where you know what the inflation rate is.
“We have been collecting prices in only eight centres.
“Now we have decided that it should be 22 provinces. That is because we need to understand the movement of prices in all those centres because there are businesses that are operating and providing goods and services to the people of Papua New Guinea. So we need to measure inflation in those areas.”